World News Quick Take

Agencies

INDIA

Death of gangster probed

Police in Mumbai on Wednesday said they were investigating the death in Thailand of a senior gangland figure wanted over the murder of a lawyer who represented a Mumbai attacks suspect. Bharat Nepali was suspected of masterminding the murder of Shahid Azmi, who was acting for one of three men accused of involvement in the deadly 2008 Mumbai terror attacks. Azmi was shot dead in February last year by armed men who burst into his office. “We have got some information that he [Nepali] has been killed,” a senior police official said on condition of anonymity, after the Times of India daily said the 44-year-old Mumbai underworld don was shot dead in Bangkok. The officer confirmed that he was killed in November last year, but did not comment on the newspaper’s claim that the delay in identifying Nepali was because he had been living in Bangkok under his real name.

AUSTRALIA

Fisherman swims ashore

A fisherman who swam for six hours to reach shore after a rogue wave knocked him out of his boat said on Wednesday that he survived on “adrenaline” and “sheer determination.” Andrew Wilson, 25, was on his own and was not wearing a life jacket when the wave sent him over the side of his boat on Tuesday off the Gold Coast, south of Brisbane. Police launched an air and sea search for Wilson after his boat was spotted, unmanned and with the engine still running, Tweed Heads Police Inspector Darren Steel told Australian Broadcasting Corp. Searchers found no sign of the missing man, Steel said, but he turned up ashore after swimming 7.5km, clambering over rocks and then knocking on a stranger’s door seeking help. Wilson was treated at a hospital for cuts and exposure, then released. Later, he told Nine Network television he realized as soon as he was in the water that he was going to have to swim for it. Strong currents pulling him away from shore meant he could not rest even for a short time.

CHINA

Solar flare causes disruption

The largest solar flare in more than four years has caused disruptions to shortwave radio communications in the country, state media reported. The solar flare, a huge explosion on the sun’s surface caused by magnetic activity, affected transmissions in the south on Tuesday, Xinhua news agency said, quoting the China Meteorological Administration. NASA said Monday’s solar flare was the largest in four years and the event sparked predictions of heightened northern hemisphere aurora activity. Solar flares are the most powerful explosions in the solar system and the radiation they emit can trigger radio blackouts and other phenomena on Earth, NASA said.

PAKISTAN

Immunity hearing delayed

A court has delayed a hearing on whether a US citizen detained for fatally shooting two Pakistani men has diplomatic immunity. Deputy Attorney General Naveed Inayat Malik says the court will wait until March 14 to allow the government more time to prepare its opinion on whether the US embassy worker qualifies for diplomatic protections. The decision was made at a short hearing yesterday. The government had requested an adjournment to complete its opinion. The US said Raymond Davis shot the armed men in self-defense as they tried to rob him on Jan. 27 and that his detention was illegal under international agreements covering diplomats.